Many industrial materials and media, when wet or subjected to treatment in water, are susceptible to bacterial, fungal and/or algal deterioration or degradation unless steps are taken to inhibit such degradation or deterioration. These industrial materials and media include, but are not limited to, wood pulp, wood chips, lumber, adhesives, coatings, animal hides, paper mill liquors, pharmaceutical formulations, cosmetic and toiletry formulations, geological drilling lubricants, petrochemicals, agrochemical compositions, paints, leathers, wood, metalworking fluids, cooling water, recreational water, influent plant water, waste water, pasteurizers, retort cookers, tanning liquor, starch, proteinaceous materials, acrylic latex paint emulsions, and textiles.
To control deterioration or degradation caused by microorganisms, various industrial microbicides are used. Workers in the trade have continued to seek improved biocides that have low toxicity and are capable of exhibiting a prolonged biocidal effect against a wide variety of microorganisms at normal use.
For example, British Patent No. 1,390,004, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, describes a biocidal composition for laundering textile fabrics containing a mixture of a heavy salt of a 2-mercapto-pyridine-N-oxide compound and a monomeric quaternary ammonium compound having the formula ##STR1## wherein at least one of the R groups in the above formula is or contains an alkyl group, an aralkyl group, an alkylaryl group or an amide derivative of such a group and contains from 6 to 26 carbon atoms; the remaining R groups are selected from alkyl, aryl, aralkyl, and alkylaryl groups and amide derivatives of such groups and contain from 1 to 26 carbon atoms; with the proviso that two R groups may combine with the N atom to form an imidazoline ring structure; and X is a halogen anion or an alkyl sulfate anion having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms.
Ionene polymers, i.e., cationic polymers containing quaternary nitrogens in the polymer backbone, is one group of biocides used in controlling bacteria and algae in various aqueous systems. Illustrative examples of these polymers and their uses are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,874,870; 3,898,336; 3,931,319; 4,027,020; 4,054,542; 4,089,977; 4,111,679; 4,506,081; 4,581,058; 4,778,813; 4,970,211; 5,051,124; and 5,093,078, the disclosures of all of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein.
The use of pyrithiones and their metal derivatives to control microorganisms has also been described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,809,971 and 3,236,733, both incorporated in their entirety herein by reference. Although generally acceptable microbicides, the pyrithiones are expensive. Systems requiring high concentrations of pyrithione salts, therefore, are generally uneconomical.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a microbicidal composition that overcomes these and other problems.